Convert a word count into minutes and seconds at any reading or speaking speed, with a conversion table for common word counts.
| Input | Result |
|---|---|
| 1,000 words at 238 wpm | 4 min 12 s |
| 1,000 words at 150 wpm | 6 min 40 s |
| 2,500 words at 238 wpm | 10 min 30 s |
| 1,500 words at 150 wpm | 10 min 0 s |
| Words | Silent reading (238 wpm) | Speaking (150 wpm) |
|---|---|---|
| 250 | 1 min 3 s | 1 min 40 s |
| 500 | 2 min 6 s | 3 min 20 s |
| 1,000 | 4 min 12 s | 6 min 40 s |
| 1,500 | 6 min 18 s | 10 min 0 s |
| 2,000 | 8 min 24 s | 13 min 20 s |
| 3,000 | 12 min 36 s | 20 min 0 s |
| 5,000 | 21 min 1 s | 33 min 20 s |
| 10,000 | 42 min 1 s | 66 min 40 s |
The same word count is worth very different amounts of time depending on whether it is read or spoken. Which conversion you want depends on the medium, so enter the speed that matches your case rather than the default.
Most old reading-time tools use 200 words per minute. That number traces back to a 1960s study of mid-century college readers and it is low for today's adults. The current best estimate is Marc Brysbaert's 2019 meta-analysis in the Journal of Memory and Language (volume 109, article 104047), which pooled 190 independent studies and 18,573 participants: adults silently reading English non-fiction average 238 words per minute, fiction runs slightly faster at about 260 wpm, and reading aloud averages 183 wpm.
Two things follow. First, the spread is wide — most adults fall between roughly 175 and 300 wpm on non-fiction, with a standard deviation near 60 wpm. Second, reading speed is not a measure of intelligence: it drops about 25% when text moves from narrative news to a scientific abstract, and readers over 70 lose roughly one to two words per minute per year of age.
About 4 minutes 12 seconds of silent reading at 238 words per minute, or 6 minutes 40 seconds if it is spoken at 150 wpm.
Roughly 750 words at a comfortable 150 words per minute, or 650 words at a slower 130 wpm.
About 2,380 words at the adult silent-reading average of 238 wpm.
238 is the figure from the 2019 meta-analysis of 190 studies. 200 comes from mid-century research and runs about 16% slow. Use 180–200 if the material is technical or being read by non-native speakers.
The arithmetic does, but the speed does not. 238 wpm is calibrated for English; Chinese, Japanese and Korean are written without spaces so a word count is not even well defined. Use the calculator for English text only.